One of the greatest mysteries of my life has been one I'm sure all of us have asked at one point or another; What does Butterbeer taste like? That unanswered query is why I recently marched down to the Harry Potter store right near the Flatiron Building and spent 12 whole American dollars on a foamy glass of Harry Potter's favorite beverage. Nobody had ever described what it tasted like to me, so I was excited and ready for anything. When I tell you it is simply a butterscotch-flavored crème so…

I don't know if there's ever been a fictional character with more father figures than Harry James Potter . Considering his lack of alive and supportive immediate family members, Harry had the chosen family thing down to a science. Rubeus Hagrid, Arthur Weasley, Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and arguably Severus Snape looked after Harry in a way his father no longer could. Hagrid made him and his friends tea, Lupin taught him how to ward off dementors, and Snape bullied him relent…

There are some Harry Potter takes that have been beaten to the ground. Everybody wonders why the Weasley twins didn't see Peter Pettigrew on the Marauders Map in the same room as Ron. Everybody has questions about how Gilderoy Lockhart was able to get hired at Hogwarts in the first place. My favorite Harry Potter plot hole pertains to everybody's favorite game: Quidditch. I really question the viability of Quidditch as a game. I know that in the Quidditch World Cup , the golden snitch is less c…

Happy Boxing Day, Potterheads! It's days like today that really make me think about how Dudley Dursley is doing as an adult. Of course, I know Dudley Dursley isn't a real person, but there are thousands of kids just like him all over the world who are all grown up now. Kids who cried if they got 36 presents for Christmas instead of 37 are walking the earth as we speak. I like to believe that Dudley ended up as a better person than when we first met him in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone .…

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I don't know about you guys, but I wish I could've gone to Hogwart's Yule Ball. The way the Great Hall was decorated so elegantly for the holiday season, and the movie executed the set of that scene so brilliantly. I know that some fans are bitter about how the girl characters were costumed (mainly Hermione, Padma, and Parvati) but you have to admit, the movie did pretty darn well translating the book to the screen. My high school was so lame that we never had a “winter ball” themed dance. Ther…

I am a theme park fan, and no theme park is superior to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It's a very simple formula, really. Millions of people worldwide want to walk around and exist at Hogwarts, Hogsmede, and Diagon Alley, and Universal Studios decided to facilitate that experience. Unfortunately, most of us won't actually get to go to magical boarding schools , so these theme parks are as good as it gets. I haven't been to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet but based on the vlogs I'…

Is Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone a Christmas movie? Scholars remain divided, but it's a well know fact among Potterheads that the Harry Potter movies are often a favorite to watch during the holidays. The scene with Ron and Harry celebrating Christmas together is too pure for words, and who among us hasn't wished we could spend the holiday within the walls of Hogwarts? I feel like every Harry Potter film gives me different seasonal vibes. Obviously, Sorcerers Stone and Chamber of Secrets…

The future of Harry Potter movies is unclear, as the Wizarding World's biggest spinoff series has been nixed. This week, it was reported that the rest of the Fantastic Beasts series is being quietly canceled due to the lackluster financial performance of the last film and Ezra Miller and J.K. Rowling's respective scandals. In all honesty, I'm not that mad about this. Fantastic Beasts was a weird series, and I somehow got through it without caring about a single one of the characters. I feel lik…

It never fails to boggle my mind how many people are fans of Harry Potter because they just want to date Draco . I've personally never wanted to be in a relationship with any of the characters in the Wizarding World, but I'm not a hater of those who do. If you started reading or watching the series when you were a teenager, it makes sense if your first crushes were Tom Felton or Daniel Radcliffe. However, nothing could have prepared me for stumbling upon the Harry Potter side of TikTok to find…

Something I don't think we talk about enough is just how rad of a guy Daniel Radcliffe truly is. Here is a dude who is proud of his past work shaping millions of people's childhoods through the Harry Potter movies. He's never embarrassed to talk about his role as the most famous fictional wizard during interviews. At the same time, he has been able to move on from the franchise and star in a slew of really cool and weird movies. He has done action movies, a romantic comedy, and a movie where he…

One of the best things about the Harry Potter books is you can imagine yourself living in them. You might think that many children's series provide escapism and character identification. While that's true, the Wizarding World allows you to imagine yourself as just a regular person within the world. You don't need to be a heroic and brave Gryffindor to want to go to Hogwarts. Even though I'm not likely to be leading any revolutions, I still would like to attend that school. Many of Potterhead's…

If you ask any Harry Potter fan what they think of Severus Snape , chances are you will get a strong opinion. However, get 100 Potterheads in a room, and there's a chance none of them will share the exact same take on Snape. Over the years, fan opinions have slowly but surely turned against Snape. While some still view him as a hero, it's a lot more common for people to see him as no more than a common villain who was needlessly cruel to an abused child because he still has a crush on his dead…

Ronald Weasley is a horrifyingly underrated character in the Harry Potter franchise. According to some sources, before the first Harry Potter movie came out, Ron was a much more popular character among fans than Hermione. Unfortunately, that changed quickly when the Harry Potter films turned Ron into a goofy comic relief sidekick with fewer heroic moments. Hermione was the smart friend, Harry was the hero, and Ron was just there. The Ron depicted in the movies was definitely not the Ron in the…

Being sorted into your Harry Potter house is one of the most important moments of a young Potterhead's life. There are so many ways to do it. If you're one of the lucky ones, you can do it in person, like my friend who was sorted into Hufflepuff at a bookstore the night of the Deathly Hallows book release. Imagine how much fun it is to have a real sorting hat plopped on your head as an eight-year-old? Lucky dog. If you were sorted in the pre-Pottermore era, you likely had to fill out a question…